I’m in for it.

Haven’t seen it better explained than this:

To say that antipoverty programs in the United States are perverted may be an understatement. When you take into account the loss of means-tested benefits (e.g., cash assistance, food stamps, housing subsidies, and health insurance), and the taxes that people pay on earned income, the return to working is essentially zero for those in the lower two quintiles of the income distribution.

For many of the working poor, the implicit marginal tax rate is greater than 100 percent. The long-run consequence of undermining the positive incentive to work is, of course, the creation of an underclass acclimated to not working; the supplement of cash and noncash benefits with income from crime and the underground economy; and the government resorting to negative incentives such as mandatory work programs.

And ObamaCare is perfectly designed to bring the 3rd quintile in to this system. Not by entirely destroying our incentive to work (that was necessary to create a poor, dependent underclass), but by taking so much of our money that we can’t live without government subsidies. By the time Obama and his Democrats are done, those of us in the middle class who work will be taxed at rate which makes it impossible for us to give up the government benefits – we’ll be mortgaged to the liberal super-State. And, my friends, that is precisely what they want.

Our liberals are tired of dealing with us – they hate the fact that we are clinging to God, guns and the Founder’s vision of the United States. All we’re doing is getting in the way – they are astounded that they still have to argue over such entirely settled (in liberal minds) issues such as global warming, gay marriage and federally funded abortion on demand. To them, such things are the mere basics of a normal society, as liberals define it. And so they press hard for ObamaCare…because that is the lynchpin of making us dependent with increasing dependence generation after generation until we’re entirely servile, as a majority of the European population is.

This is the crucial time – this is the crucial battle. We win this, and we’ll restore the America our Founders intended and our grandfathers lived in. Lose this, and our nation will be as set on a course to death as the European nations are today.

Bubbles, bubbles everywhere – and here’s one more popping:

“A crisis of unprecedented proportions is approaching” in the U.S. commercial real-estate market, according to Randall Zisler, chief executive officer of Zisler Capital Partners LLC.

The CHART OF THE DAY displays quarterly returns on commercial property — apartment buildings, hotels, industrial sites, offices and stores — as compiled by the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries. Returns were negative for the past five quarters, the longest streak since 1992.

Property prices have fallen by 30 percent to 50 percent from their peaks, Zisler estimated yesterday in a report. The plunge has wiped out the equity in most real-estate deals that relied on debt financing since 2005, he wrote.

Only two left to go – our stock bubble and China’s real estate bubble.

Can’t have it both ways – you either are, or you aren’t Catholic:

Bishop of Providence Thomas J. Tobin has responded to Rep. Patrick Kennedy’s contention that his dissent from Catholic teaching on abortion does not make him “less of a Catholic.” Saying that such dissent renders the lawmaker’s communion “flawed,” he urged Kennedy to become a “profile in courage” and to defend the unborn.

Rep. Kennedy (D-R.I.), the son of the late U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, had accused the Catholic Church of fanning “the flames of dissent and discord” because of the Catholic bishops’ opposition to proposed health care reform that does not explicitly prohibit funding of abortion.

Bishop Tobin responded critically to the congressman and asked for an apology.

A meeting had been scheduled between the prelate and the politician, but a Tuesday statement from the Diocese of Providence said it had been postponed…

Kennedy is trying to straddle the fence – and it just can’t be done. Catholics – like all Christians – adhere to the belief that life is a sacred gift from God, and that life begins at conception. If an abortion is sought, it is wrong. The only time an abortion is not inherently evil is when it happens as a result of some other good desired – such as, for instance, a surgery to save the life of the mother which as an unintended result causes an abortion. The only time it is ever licit to kill is in defense of others – and even then, it is not a good thing that the killing is done. It is, some times, a sad necessity – but there is never a necessity for elective abortion.

And it is high time that the Kennedy family be called to account for itself. For decades the Kennedy’s have played upon their alleged Catholicism in order to both garner votes and give a patina of decency to some rather questionable life stories. Ted Kennedy got away with it, but we daren’t let the next generation do it. Patrick Kennedy is free to believe as he wishes – but if he’s to be Catholic, there are certain things he must believe.

Can you feel that warm glObama?

U.S. job-market optimism has reached a new low, with only 8% of Americans saying now is a good time to find a quality job — the lowest level since Gallup began tracking this measure in August 2001. Americans’ optimism about this had begun to diminish even before the recession began to unfold two years ago, when 38% in November 2007 were optimistic, and there has been essentially no improvement since February of this year, when 9% held this view.

If Obama were to start giving FDR-style fireside chats, the fire would go out…

Bingo:

Emerson Electric Co. Chief Executive Officer David Farr said the U.S. government is hurting manufacturers with regulation and taxes and his company will continue to focus on growth overseas.

“Washington is doing everything in their manpower, capability, to destroy U.S. manufacturing,” Farr said today in Chicago at a Baird Industrial Outlook conference. “Cap and trade, medical reform, labor rules.”

Emerson, the maker of electrical equipment and InSinkErator garbage disposals with $20.9 billion in sales for the year ended September, will keep expanding in emerging markets, which represented 32 percent of revenue in 2009. About 36 percent of manufacturing is now in “best-cost countries” up from 21 percent in 2003, according to slides accompanying his speech.

Companies will create jobs in India and China, “places where people want the products and where the governments welcome you to actually do something,” Farr said.

Now, don’t let the corporate bosses off the hook, either. Farr does seem like a fairly smart guy, but a very large percentage of the corporate bosses are weak-minded cretins who’s only goal is to make the quarterly balance sheet look better…and thus shoving manufacturing out of high-cost US to low-cost China works out well for them. What we have here is the perfect storm of corporate and government idiots who are – unintentionally or not – conspiring to completely eliminate manufacturing in the United States. We’re being told that we’ll just have to get used to less American manufacturing (and farming…and mining) but that, don’t worry, we’ll still make plenty of money sitting in cubicles answering customer service phone calls and emails (until all of that is outsourced, too).

When I’m talking of “Make/Mine/Grow” I am asserting that if we lower the cost of making, mining and growing things in the United States, we’ll get more of same done here – which will create more wealth – which will mean more jobs – etc. We’re being quite insane, right now – outsourcing our manufacturing to China which then uses its profits from selling things to us to buy our bonds so that we can borrow more money to bail out more financial institutions. Does anyone think this can be sustained? Or that making windmills will replace all the other things we used to make, mine and grow here in the United States?

My good people, we should be coddling our manufacturers – doing everything we can to soften the blows of this down economy and doing everything we can to encourage people to start up farms, mines and factories. We don’t have to buy stuff from China – really, we don’t. We can make stuff – we’re clever enough. We don’t have to be thumb-sucking leeches doomed to default – but we will need a change in government to get the ball rolling.

UPDATE: And as I was saying about China…

Only a couple months behind the curve, but better late than never:

Republicans have moved ahead of Democrats by 48% to 44% among registered voters in the latest update on Gallup’s generic congressional ballot for the 2010 House elections, after trailing by six points in July and two points last month.

Rasmussen has it a 43/37 split in favor of the GOP – and Rasmussen is polling “likely voters”. Bottom line: the GOP is gaining strength as Democrats screw up everything. Question: will the GOP leadership put together the necessary message and candidates to capitalize on this? Remember, we’re not called “the stupid party”, for nothing.

This gets ever more painful to watch:

President Barack Obama does not plan to accept any of the Afghanistan war options presented by his national security team, pushing instead for revisions to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government, a senior administration official said Wednesday.

That stance comes in the midst of forceful reservations about a possible troop buildup from the U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, according to a second top administration official.

In strongly worded classified cables to Washington, Eikenberry said he had misgivings about sending in new troops while there are still so many questions about the leadership of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

To translate: “Obama doesn’t want to make a decision to send or deny the troops, but he needed a plausible excuse to spin things out a while longer – Eikenberry provided it”.

Meanwhile, however, people are still dying there – and our troops have got to wonder ever more often if they’ll be given a clear mission and proper support from the politicians back home.

The truth of the matter is that Karzai may be a lot of things, but the ability of his government to assert control over all of Afghanistan rides on our efforts – and it would be the same no matter who was in charge of Afghanistan. Its not for us to settle Afghanistan’s political issues – it is for us to provide the safe haven where Afghans of good will can work it out, just as Iraqis of good will worked out Iraq’s future under the shield of American arms. Most Afghans, like most of the people in the world, just want to be left alone to get on with their lives – right now, the Taliban is making Afghans wonder if it will be Americans or Taliban they’ll have to deal with in the long run. We have to convince the Afghans that we are the power which will stay, not the Taliban. We do that, and we’ll get our Afghan version of the “Anbar awakening”.

What Obama is doing is playing right in to the enemy’s hands – he’s being irresolute. Someone pointed out that the time between 9/11 and fall of Kabul in 2001 was a shorter time than between presentation of the plan and Obama’s continued refusal to makea choice. Our political leaders in Washington must make it clear to President Obama that he must decide – one way or the other, and right away. No more time for thinking it over – it is time to act.

UPDATE: WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, DITHERING IS STRENGTH.

Do any Democrats out there have any spine, at all?

Gov. Deval Patrick won’t take anymore action to prevent a convicted terror bomber from speaking at the University of Massachusetts Amherst despite his strong opposition, he said today…

…Even though the event will be held on the state-owned Amherst campus and a professor invited Levasseur, Patrick said he will take no more action to stop the terror leader from speaking.

“I can’t control the comings and goings on campuses,” Patrick said.

When asked if the professor should leave the university, Patrick said, “You can escalate and escalate, and I’m not going to go there. I get the academic freedom, all I’m saying is there is an issue of taste and sensitivity that also ought to be considered.”

How about just going there with 10,000 other people and simply not letting the terrorist in? How about doing whatever you can to stop this desecration of higher education?

Nope, none of that…just a mild rebuke. Gotta be careful, you know, get off that liberal ranch a bit too much and you’ll pay the price…especially when you’re a bit concerned about your re-election prospects in uber-liberal Massachusetts.

Dogs are just more, well…human.